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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. 

Shelf 

PRESENTED BY 

UNITED STATES OF AMEEIOA. 



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p~usr 



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(From a Painting, 185?.} 



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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 



flftattbew Watson poster 



1800 — 1863 



BY 



/ 



j^w. f . 



Don't let tbe Httle ones forget me" 



TKHasbinGton 
1896 

(For private circulation only) 

H 




press of J. 3. little & Co. 
Bsiot place, Dew Both 



Contents 

I. Pioneer Days 5 

II. Mercantile Life .... 23 

III. Removal to Evansville . . .44 

IV. Education of the Children . 54 
V. Slavery and the Civil War . . 65 

VI. His Death and Character . 80 



I. 
IMoneer 2>ass 

Matthew Watson Foster, the youngest 
son of George Forster and Jane Watson his 
wife, was born at Gilesfield, County of Dur- 
ham, England, on the 226. of June, 1800. 
George Forster was a tenant farmer and the 
family of Jane Watson were tradespeople. 
The Forsters of this branch were quite numer- 
ous in the counties of Northumberland and 
Durham. The family dropped the letter r from 
the name after the emigration to America. 
One of Matthew's sisters was the wife of a 
bookseller and publisher of Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne. Matthew never went to school, but was 
taught by his mother to read and write, and at 
the age of ten he was placed in the bookstore 
at Newcastle, where, as a shopboy, he com- 
pleted his rudimentary education. 

The peace which closed the great war with 
Napoleon left England feverish and ex- 



6 /Battbew XUatson jfoeter 

hausted.* The strain had been heaviest upon 
the middle and laboring classes, and with the 
conclusion concurrently of the Napoleonic and 
American wars, a large tide of emigration to the 
United States set in, composed in great part of 
the better people of the laboring classes who 
could command the means to meet the expenses 
of the journey and acquire lands in the new 
country. This tide soon became so large that 
the public press and government took alarm at 
the exodus, and measures were adopted to limit 
and discourage it as much as possible. f Among 
the earliest of the emigrants was George Fors- 
ter, who, with a portion of his family, landed 
in New York in 1815. 

For a few years they remained in that State, 
in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, engaged in 
farming and gardening. Even at that early date 
this region was becoming so fully settled, and 
lands were so valuable, it was found difficult, 
with the limited means brought from England, 
to obtain farms sufficient for their needs, and 
in 1817 young Matthew, then a lad of seven- 

* Green's " History of the English People." 
f McMaster's '* History of the United States," vol. iv. 
389- 



pioneer Dags 



teen, started out alone to look for a new and 
permanent home for the family in the compara- 
tively unknown territories of the Far West. At 
that day means of travel were very insufficient 
even in the more thickly populated portions of 
the country, and west of the Alleghany Moun- 
tains the roads were few and facilities for 
intercommunication almost unknown. Under 
the most favorable circumstances the journey 
of a lone youth into the heart of the Missis- 
sippi Valley was no slight undertaking ; but the 
financial situation of the family made it neces- 
sary for the young traveller to observe the great- 
est economy, and he started out from the 
Mohawk Valley, on his long exploration, on 
foot, carrying his knapsack, and for days and 
weeks he trudged along over the mountains, 
through the vast wildernesses of Ohio and 
Indiana, and across the prairies of Illinois, to 
St. Louis, Missouri, walking all the way, ex- 
cept as he secured an occasional ride from a 
"mover's" wagon going his way. In this 
undertaking he gave evidence of the energy 
and industry which were so characteristic of his 
after life. 

At the time of his visit, St. Louis, though a 



8 rtBattbew THflateon jfoster 



town of less than four thousand inhabitants, 
was beginning to awake from the long quiet 
which had marked its history since its settle- 
ment by the French. Lewis and Clark's 
expedition, and the explorations of Pike and 
others, had opened up the country drained by 
the western tributaries of the Mississippi, and 
the vast regions of the Rocky Mountains, and 
the large stream of immigration from the Cen- 
tral and Southern Atlantic States pouring into 
the adjoining territory was giving new life and 
activity to the old town. The young pros- 
pector, as in later years he often narrated, fore- 
saw the prosperous future which was in store 
for the place so happily located geographically, 
and was strongly inclined to cast in his lot there. 
The question of the future political relations of 
the new State soon to be organized was agitat- 
ing the public mind, and it became evident to 
him that slavery was destined to be incorpo- 
rated in its Constitution, and that fact decided 
him reluctantly to give up that promising field, 
and he turned upon his course, and retraced his 
way eastward through Illinois as far as Albion, 
where there was a large colony or settlement of 
English people, and with them he remained for 



pioneer Dags 



a few weeks. But on his outward journey he 
had been much attracted by the fertile lands 
and finely timbered regions of southern Indi- 
ana, and he crossed over to the valley of White 
River, about twenty miles east of the old mili- 
tary post of Vincennes, and there selected the 
location for the future home of his family. 

After the necessary prospecting and arrange- 
ments had been concluded, he returned to the 
State of New York in the same manner he had 
come, and made his report. His father and 
mother and his two brothers, James and Will- 
iam, decided to go with him to Indiana, and in 
the year 1819 the family started. They had 
brought with them over the ocean household 
effects which were considerable. These were 
loaded on wagons which also carried the emi- 
grating party. Thus they travelled from the 
Mohawk Valley to the headwaters of the Alle- 
gheny River in the southwestern corner of the 
State of New York, where " flatboats " were 
obtained, and in these they made the long jour- 
ney of eight hundred miles by water into the 
Ohio, and down that river nearly to the conflu- 
ence of the Wabash. 

When the party reached Cincinnati, then a 



io flfcattbew "Cdatson poster 



flourishing town of eight thousand inhabitants, 
the wife of James Foster refused to go any 
farther into the unknown wilderness of the 
West, and insisted upon locating at that place, 
which seemed to her the remotest outpost of 
civilization. Her husband, therefore, purchased 
a small tract of land in the suburbs and made 
that place his future home. The growth of the 
city and the increased value of his land gave 
him a competency, which enabled him to spend 
the later years of his life in ease and comfort. 
When the family effects were being removed 
from the boat into the house which was to be 
their future home, as they put down a very 
heavy case, the former owner of the premises 
remarked that it must be full of British guineas. 
" Sir," said the wife Elizabeth, "if that were so, 
I would not have come to any place of yours." 
She was very proud of being the daughter of 
an East India officer and the niece of a bishop, 
and to the day of her death pined for " Old 
England." She was a woman of good educa- 
tion and gentle manners, and after she was past 
eighty "Aunt Betsey" used to delight the 
nephews and nieces by narrating her experi- 
ences in the society of her girlhood days. 



flMoneer Bags n 



The parents, then respectively seventy-nine 
and seventy-three years old, remained behind 
with James Foster in Cincinnati, and the two 
brothers, William and Matthew, again took to 
their boat, and with the household effects 
floated down the Ohio, nearly four hundred 
miles, to a small village which has since risen 
into the flourishing city of Evansville, and 
which, twenty-seven years later, became the 
home of the younger son. Here the boat was 
unloaded, and the effects were with great diffi- 
culty transported a distance of over fifty miles, 
as the roads then ran, to the point in the 
interior which had been selected. William 
Foster, the elder brother, who was already 
married, acquired a tract of land here, and 
began life for himself. 

The records of the Vincennes Land Office 
and of the Recorder's Office of Pike County, 
Indiana, show that on the eighth day of August, 
1819, Matthew W. Foster received from the 
Government of the United States a patent for 
the following public land : The West half of the 
Southwest quarter of Section 25, Town 1 
North, Range 7 West, being eighty acres. 
This tract of land was located about seven miles 



12 dfcattbew "©Hateon poster 

northeast of Petersburgh, the county seat of 
Pike County, Indiana, and here the young man 
set to work to prepare a place to shelter his 
aged parents, who were thenceforth to make 
their home with him to the day of their death. 
The habitations of the people of the entire 
Ohio and Mississippi valleys of that day were 
almost universally log cabins. In some of the 
older and larger towns a few houses of frame 
existed, and, in rare instances, of brick. The 
first brick house in St. Louis, founded during 
the French occupation, was not built till 1813. 
With the material immediately at hand, and the 
aid of the few settlers in the vicinity, in a little 
while the trees were felled, and a log cabin 
erected, and Matthew started on the journey 
overland to Cincinnati, and in a few weeks 
returned with his father and mother. 

Nothwithstanding the trial of endurance and 
perseverance which had attended the long and 
tiresome journeys resulting in the selection of a 
final home in this new land and remote frontier, 
the young man of nineteen was entering upon 
greater hardships and a more severe test of his 
courage and persistency of purpose. Society 
in that new country was as rude and as desti- 



pioneer Dags 13 



tute of the comforts of life as could well be 
imagined. Few roads worthy of the name 
existed, and travel was almost entirely on 
horseback. Along the banks of the Ohio and 
Mississippi, especially in the older towns, mer- 
chandise was on sale to a limited extent, but in 
the interior very few of the comforts of life 
were attainable; the furniture of the houses 
was of the most meagre kind; the clothing 
worn was almost exclusively home-spun and 
home-made; coffee was a rare luxury; sugar 
was obtained from the maple tree; and there 
are persons now living in Pike County who have 
paid as much as forty acres of good land for a 
single barrel of salt. 

The cabin which for a number of years was to 
be the home of the family, was composed of two 
rooms. The floor was of puncheons ; the side 
walls were of rough-hewn logs, and chinked ; the 
roof, of clapboards; the windows, closed with 
thick shutters, were without glass; the doors 
were hung on wooden hinges, and fastened with 
a wooden latch raised from the outside with a 
leather string; and the chimney, of logs, the 
hearth and sides of which being of clay. Into 
this tenement young Foster had brought his 



i4 dfcattbew Watson jpoeter 



aged parents, and he was to derive their means 
of subsistence from the eighty-acre tract of 
land which he had purchased from the Govern- 
ment, and on which he had erected his cabin, 
and not a rood of it was in tillable condition. 
Between them and subsistence stood the thickly 
studded giants of the forests. In one respect, 
probably, no part of our highly favored land 
was as richly endowed as the valley of the Ohio 
and its tributaries. All this vast region was an 
unbroken wilderness of trees the most diversi- 
fied in character and the most useful to man- 
kind. In the locality in question were found 
oak of the choicest qualities, black and white 
walnut, poplar, ash, maple, hickory, cherry, 
and many other varieties. Valuable as they 
were to man under other circumstances, to 
the hardy pioneer they were only an encum- 
brance and an obstacle to his means of a liveli- 
hood, to be removed and destroyed in the most 
speedy and effective manner possible. Unaided 
and alone, young Foster set to work to make a 
"clearing" in the unbroken forest, where he 
might plant Indian corn and vegetables. It 
was a task worthy of Hercules to attack those 
gigantic trees with a single axe, but he set to 



pioneer Dags 15 



work with a will, and before a second season 
had passed he had tillable land sufficient to 
exhaust his utmost efforts at cultivation, the 
aged father only being able to look after the 
lighter work of the farm. And thus he and the 
young men of his day and region began the 
battle of life. 

During this period the father was the nomi- 
nal head of the household of three members, 
and he doubtless provided the money to pur- 
chase the land. For the first two years of their 
residence in Indiana, Matthew was a minor, 
and after his majority and up to the time of his 
father's death, in 1823, he lived in the family 
nominally as a hired laborer, as it appears from 
the settlement of the estate he was allowed 
wages at the rate of four dollars per month. 
The original inventory of the personal property 
of George Foster, deceased, taken August 7, 
1823, in the handwriting of Matthew, still exists 
in the records of Pike County, and is interesting, 
among other things, as showing how meagre 
was the outfit of a farmer in the early days of 
Indiana. The inventory shows 2 horses, 9 head 
of cattle, 11 hogs, 1 wagon and harness, 1 
plough, 1 hay- fork, 1 axe, 1 sprouting-hoe, 1 



1 6 jflfcattbew TJQatson poster 



iron wedge, I log-chain, I large kettle, I oven, 
I pair steelyards, I gun, 2 beds and bedding, 4 
chairs, 1 tea-kettle, 1 coffee-mill, 1 candlestick 
and snuffers, 6 plates, cups, and saucers, 1 set of 
knives and forks, /glasses [tumblers], 1 pitcher; 
and then follows an enumeration of articles of 
minor importance. But a noticeable part of 
the inventory was the silver tablespoons, tea- 
spoons, tongs, and punch-ladle, probably the 
only silver ones in the county, and evidence of 
the life of greater comfort they had left across 
the waters. 

Farming was the sole occupation of the 
people of the region for some years after the 
arrival of the Foster family. The products 
were mainly Indian corn and pork. The hogs 
were " mast-fed " for pork — that is, fattened in 
the autumn and winter on the nuts which were 
very abundant, running free in the woods, with 
an occasional feed of corn at the farm. Not 
until a later date was wheat cultivated, and no 
mills capable of making flour existed for many 
years after this period. The wants of the 
people were few, as they could live on corn- 
bread and pork, supplemented by the game, 
then very abundant, and they were able to 



pioneer 2)ag0 17 



weave and make their own clothing. But in a 
little while the corn and pork produced greatly 
exceeded the local demand, and the surplus 
was forced to seek a market. This could only 
be found in one direction, to wit, down the 
current of the adjoining waterways, as trans- 
portation overland was out of the question, and 
steam navigation had not yet penetrated that 
locality. At that time and long after, till rail- 
roads began to change the current of commerce, 
New Orleans and the lower Mississippi Valley 
were the objective points of all commercial 
enterprises of Southern Indiana. The surplus 
corn and pork were loaded on a home-built 
craft called a flatboat, and thus taken to 
market. On such a craft, in the year 1820, 
Matthew Foster made his first trip to New 
Orleans as a hired hand or oarsman, eleven 
years before Abraham Lincoln's similar trip 
which has become so famous. The voyage 
down was attended only with the incidents of 
early river navigation, but the return journey 
was one full of hardships and dangers. Steam- 
boats had even at that early day made the voy- 
age from Pittsburg down to New Orleans, and 
forced their way back against the strong cur- 



1 8 /Bbattbew TJClatson ffostcr 



rent of the rivers, to the wonder of the whole 
country; but they were so few and the voyages 
were so infrequent and expensive, they had not 
then become a general means of transportation, 
and the flatboat-men of the early days always 
made their return journey on foot. To a strong 
and hardy youth, who had already in this 
manner measured the long journey from New 
York to St. Louis and back again, tramping the 
twelve hundred miles which lay between the 
commercial emporium of the Southwest and his 
Indiana home was not an undertaking from 
which he would draw back; but aside from the 
test of physical endurance, there were dangers 
of no slight moment which might call into play 
the courage and presence of mind of even the 
daring backwoodsman. It was the practice to 
bring back the proceeds of the flatboat cargo 
buckled around the waist in Spanish doubloons 
or other foreign coin, and the route lay through 
the Cherokee and Choctaw Indian country; and 
in those turbulent and unsettled times the high- 
wayman and freebooter, who had made them- 
selves so notorious in the West, had not been 
entirely extirpated. In the long journey, prac- 
tice made him a rapid walker ; and as he neared 



I 



pioneer Dags 19 



home, and became anxious to see his mother 
and friends, he was able to cover fifty and even 
sixty miles the last day. Two such round trips 
to New Orleans and return afoot were made 
by him before he began to use the steamboat 
for the up-river journey. 

He made his first voyage with his eyes and 
ears open. He noted the large production of 
sugar and molasses on the plantations of the 
lower Mississippi, and the scarcity and high price 
of the hoops used on the barrels and hogsheads. 
It suggested to him the first commercial ven- 
ture of his life. He called his neighbors to his 
assistance, and readily secured from the vast 
hickory forests at their doors a stock of hoop- 
poles sufficient to load a flatboat, in the con- 
struction of which he assisted, and, when 
loaded, assumed the command, took it to the 
lower coast, as the sugar region was called, and 
so disposed of the cargo as to make the venture 
a very profitable one. Thenceforward for a 
number of years he engaged actively in the 
building of flatboats, loading them with prod- 
uce, and taking them to New Orleans for a 
market. At first the business was a kind of 
cooperative undertaking, the neighbors uniting 



2o Aattbew XQatson Jester 



with him by the contribution of the products 
of their farms, and joining together to build the 
boat upon which young Foster took this cargo 
to New Orleans. But his thrift and enterprise 
soon enabled him to conduct the business on 
his own account. He early acquired a reputa- 
tion as a skilful and prudent pilot through the 
tortuous rivers, full of snags and other dangers 
to navigation, often resulting in the wreck of 
the boat and the total loss of the cargo ; and he 
likewise became an expert trader, and some- 
times was enabled, by close attention to the 
market, or by seeking unfrequented localities, 
to make a profit on his voyage when the season 
resulted disastrously for others. 

The old-time flatboat which played such an 
important part in the early development of the 
great West has about passed out of existence. 
For the first half of the present century it was 
the chief means of transportation for the 
products of the Mississippi Valley. A writer 
describing the condition of this commerce about 
the year 1830, and referring to the part of the 
river front of New Orleans set apart for this 
traffic, says: " One could walk a mile over the 
tops of the flatboats at the landing, without 



pioneer ©age 21 



going ashore." The business grew with Mr. 
Foster from year to year, till the number of 
boats despatched by him increased to ten or 
twelve in a single season. Flatboats were 
generally from seventy to ninety feet long 
and from twenty to twenty-four feet wide. 
The gunwales were made of poplar trees, 
which in that locality grew to great propor- 
tions, frequently one hundred feet to the first 
limb, and eight feet in diameter. One such 
tree would be split and trimmed, and would 
constitute the two gunwales of a boat, which 
was about seven feet high at the sides and nine 
feet at the centre, with a roof of thin planks. 
It had a " sweep " or long oar on each side, a 
long oar at the stern, and a short oar at the 
bow. A crew consisted of a steersman, usually 
a more or less expert pilot, and five or six 
"bow-hands." Such a boat could carry a 
cargo of three hundred thousand pounds of 
pork, or three thousand bushels of ear-corn, or 
four thousand five hundred bushels of shelled 
corn, which were the usual products loaded; 
but to these venison was added, especially in 
the earlier years of the trade, Mr. Foster hav- 
ing purchased four or five hundred pairs of 



22 fl&attbew TJCiatson JFoster 



venison hams in a single season, at twenty-five 
to thirty-seven and a half cents per pair, paid 
for in merchandise from his store. 

At the beginning of this trade it was his 
practice to accompany his boat or boats, acting 
as steersman, and the voyage or round trip usu- 
ally occupied the time from March to June or 
July. But as steamboats came into more general 
use, after loading and despatching his boats on 
White River, he would later go to Evansville, 
the nearest important town on the Ohio River, 
embark on a steamboat for New Orleans, and 
meet his boats there, or at such other point on 
" the coast " as had been previously designated, 
and superintend the sale of the cargoes. The 
proceeds would then be converted into mer- 
chandise such as was demanded by the limited 
wants of his neighbors, freighted on steamboats 
to Evansville, and thence transported in wagons 
to Pike County. Soon after his father's death 
in 1823, he established a small " country store " 
on his farm, which became in a short time an 
important adjunct to his flatboat traffic, being 
a means of barter for the produce purchased 
from the farmers, and with which the boats 
were loaded. 



II. 

flDercantfle Xife 

The system of barter, so modestly begun on 
the eighty-acre farm, in a few years grew to 
such proportions that Mr. Foster found it 
necessary in 1827 to remove to Petersburgh, the 
county seat of Pike County, then a small town, 
but the centre of trade and social advantage 
of all the surrounding country. This change 
marks an important era in his life. It opened 
to him a new career as a merchant, broadened 
his opportunities and obligations, and gave 
freer play to his untiring energy. In those 
days little money was in circulation, and traffic 
was carried on by a system of barter, the mer- 
chandise being sold to the farmers on credit, to 
be paid for at the close of the season in the 
products of the farm, with some addition from 
the forest in venison and peltry, chief among 
which being coon-skins. This made it conven- 
ient, if not necessary, to continue and enlarge 



24 d&attbcw THHatson ffoster 



the flatboat business. Besides, we hear soon 
after his coming to Petersburgh of his estab- 
lishment of a horse-mill and carding-machine 
for grinding corn and preparing the wool and 
flax for manufacture in the family looms. An 
old resident of Petersburgh writes: "I have 
known as many as fifty or sixty persons at this 
mill waiting their turn to grind. Sometimes 
they would have to wait two days to get their 
grinding." But with the spirit of improve- 
ment which characterized his whole life, in 1830 
he established the first water-mill in the county, 
on Patoka River, about ten miles from the 
county seat, and this proved a great conven- 
ience to the people. 

Another important event in Mr. Foster's life 
followed his change of residence to Peters- 
burgh. His father, as already noted, had died 
in 1823, at the age of eighty-three, and he con- 
tinued to live with his mother in their cabin 
home till he came to Petersburgh. Then he 
took her to Cincinnati, where she remained with 
his elder brother James. Left alone, he became 
a boarder in one of the families of Petersburgh. 
An old lady still living in that place, in full 
mental vigor and memory at the age of ninety, 



/Mercantile Xffe 



25 



remembers him well as an inmate of her father's 
family as a boarder in those years of his bache- 
lor life. She takes great delight in telling of 
his courtship, the confidence he reposed in her, 
and his choice of Eleanor Johnson, " the belle 
of the whole county." The marriage took 
place June 18, 1829. The bride was the eldest 
daughter of Colonel John Johnson, whose 
father was a native of Virginia, and a soldier of 
the Revolutionary War, who emigrated to Ken- 
tucky; and the son, early in the century, settled 
at Vincennes, Indiana, and took a prominent 
part in the organization and history of the 
Territory and of the young State. He at one 
time acted as private secretary to General Will- 
iam Henry Harrison, Governor of the Terri- 
tory, participated in the battle of Tippecanoe, 
and rendered other important services during 
the transition period, which marked the acquisi- 
tion by the Federal Government of the title to 
the public lands through treaties and the with- 
drawal of the Indians from the Territory. The 
battle of Tippecanoe in 181 1 and the attack on 
Fort Harrison (Terre Haute) in 18 12 were the 
last contests of any importance in Indiana with 
hostile Indians ; but occasional massacres 



26 Aattbcw XUatacn Jester 



occurred a little later, and for some years 
straggling bands loitered about the White 
River Valley. Eleanor Johnson, years after- 
wards, used to relate to her wondering children 
the stories of her own experience as a child, 
when the Indians invaded her mother's kitchen 
and carried off the dinner just ready to be served, 
her own meeting with a bear as she was riding 
through the woods, and similar adventures. 

Colonel John Johnson, about the close of the 
British war of 1812-14, left Vincennes and settled 
in Pike County, on a farm six miles southwest 
of Petersburgh. Here he erected a commodi- 
ous two-story frame house, a mansion in those 
days, then the only frame house in the county, 
the lumber to build it having been sawed by 
hand with whip-saws. The house was well 
furnished, and contained a good library, which 
was quite notable, as books were very rare. 
The farm was one of the best in Southern 
Indiana, with an extensive orchard, a hundred 
acres of cultivated land, a large frame barn, and 
all the conveniences which a prosperous and 
enterprising farmer would have. The Territorial 
and State records * show that Colonel Johnson 
* Dillon's " History of Indiana," passim. 



/Mercantile Xtfe 27 



held many important official positions, among 
which maybe mentioned that he was a member 
of the first Territorial Legislature, and almost 
continuously served in that body; a member of 
the Convention which framed the State Consti- 
tution, and afterwards a State Senator; as also 
a trustee of Vincennes University, the first 
educational institution of higher grade in the 
Territory. He acted on a commission to revise 
the Territorial laws, and this and the prominent 
positions held by him on the committees of the 
Constitutional Convention would indicate that 
he was well versed in the law, though not edu- 
cated for the bar. 

It may be well to notice in this connection 
that Colonel Johnson had several sons and other 
daughters, all of whom inherited much of his 
ability and characteristics. The oldest son, 
Fielding Johnson, was a man of strong intel- 
lect and firm convictions. For some years he 
was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Peters- 
burgh, and afterwards in Evansville. The 
attempt of the South to extend slavery into the 
new Territories north of the Missouri Com- 
promise line led him to go to Kansas in 1856, 
and he took an active part in the stirring events 



28 dfcattbew TKflatson jfoster 



of that contest. With the establishment of 
peace and order, he continued his mercantile 
pursuits, and died in Topeka, in 1872, leaving 
a considerable fortune to his children. His 
son, Major John A. Johnson, was a gallant 
soldier of the Union army during the Civil 
War, 1861-1865, was dangerously wounded, in 
consequence of which he became a physical and 
mental wreck, and died in 1894. Thomas 
Johnson, the youngest son of Colonel John 
Johnson, was a man of education and culture, 
served with distinction in the Civil War, rose to 
the rank of colonel, and died in 1882. 

It speaks well for the standing Matthew Fos- 
ter had obtained in the community that he was 
considered worthy to make an alliance with the 
family of Colonel John Johnson. He brought 
his young bride, then only seventeen years old, 
to Petersburgh, where he had erected a com- 
fortable log house adjoining his store, and she 
remained his faithful companion and helpmeet 
for the next twenty years, sharing with him the 
trials and labors of the rough frontier life, and 
being an essential factor in the work of estab- 
lishing his mercantile success, of the comfort of 
which she had little enjoyment because of her 




ELEANOR JOHNSON FOSTER 



(From a Painting, 1849.) 



Mercantile Xife 29 



untimely death. She spent the flower of her 
womanhood in Pike County, and her social 
charms, her deeds of charity, her pious zeal, 
and her motherly devotion still linger in that 
community as a fragrant memory in the hearts 
of the older residents. She is especially re- 
membered for her activity in her relations as a 
Christian. The great revival of religion which 
spread over the whole country had its origin 
about the year 1800 in Western Kentucky and 
the valley of Cumberland River, and is one of 
the notable events marking the peculiar condi- 
tions and growth of the West, and the develop- 
ment of the United States. It grew out of 
the pioneer labors of a few Presbyterian clergy, 
who held the first camp-meetings known in 
the country, and organized what afterwards 
became the Cumberland Presbyterian denomina- 
tion.* The revival extended into Southern 
Indiana in the early years of the century, and 
had a marked influence in elevating the tone of 
religion and the morals of the people. The 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church was for many 
years the only religious organization in Peters- 
burgh, and it has always continued a prominent 
* Hays's " Presbyterians," 145, 451. 



30 flfcattbew Tldatson foster 



influence in that community. Mrs. Foster, fol- 
lowing in the footsteps of her mother, was an 
active member of this church ; her house was 
the place of entertainment of the clergy, who 
in the early years were itinerants ; and the local 
church relied upon this household as its chief 
support. The faithful manner in which she 
exemplified her faith and practice in her own 
family is shown in the fact that of her six chil- 
dren who reached adult years, five became mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian Church. 

Mr. Foster, after his marriage, continued 
more actively than ever engaged in commercial 
pursuits, maintaining, at the same time, the flat- 
boat produce business and his milling opera- 
tions. He was a busy man, but not too much 
absorbed in his own affairs to give some time to 
the demands of the community. We find that 
in 1 83 1 he was elected a judge of the Probate 
Court. In those days, when the legal profession 
was not overcrowded, it was the practice to 
choose for this court, which had mainly to do 
with the settlement of estates, intelligent lay- 
men who possessed the confidence of their 
neighbors. The election of Mr. Foster to this 
position at so early an age emphasized the high 



mercantile Xife 31 



estimate by the people of the county of his 
education and integrity. It has been stated 
that he never went to school, and the only 
instruction he had received was from his mother 
before the age of ten, when he entered the book- 
store at Newcastle. In the few years he re- 
mained there he acquired a great taste for 
reading. The Waverley series of novels were 
just beginning to appear, and he devoured them 
with avidity, and in all his after life was a great 
admirer of Scott's prose and poetry. By the 
time he settled in Indiana he had read much, 
and, through his own inclination for learning, 
had mastered the elements of education, but he 
was by no means satisfied with this. The con- 
tents of the few books which were included in 
the family possessions brought from England 
were soon exhausted, and at that early day it 
was not easy to add to the number. Speaking 
of the dearth of books, he has said that he had 
ridden all day long to get a book, and that he 
had read every one he could buy or borrow in 
three counties. He was such a great reader 
that his mother became alarmed for his health, 
as after the long and exhausting work of the 
day he would read so far into the night that she 



32 toattbew TKlatson jfoster 



refused to give him any candles, so that he 
used, in order to get light, to gather wood that 
would blaze; and thus he would read by the 
firelight long after the other occupants of the 
cabin were asleep. It was by night study 
almost exclusively during his after years that 
he acquired his vast store of information, as he 
was always a hard worked man, since his busi- 
ness demanded and secured all the hours of 
daylight. His children remember his long 
hours of night reading and study. As indica- 
tive of the character of his studies it may be 
stated that he pursued mathematics as far 
as calculus, and made such practical applica- 
tion of his acquirements as to become a good 
surveyor. History was a favorite study, and 
he was also fond of poetry, Shakespeare and 
Burns being his favorites, but he read and 
quoted freely from others. He memorized 
much of Shakespeare, Scott, and Thompson, 
and could recite the whole of many of Burns's 
poems, such as ' ' The Cotter's Saturday Night, 
" Honest Poverty," etc., as well as great por- 
tions of Scott's " Ballads," and Thompson's 
" Seasons." The Scotch and English border 
ballads and love songs especially delighted him, 



dftercantfle Xife 33 



and travelling on long journeys through the 
woods, as he so often did with his wife and chil- 
dren, he used to while away the time and enter- 
tain them by singing these favorite songs. He 
had given little attention to the study of the 
law when he was made Probate Judge, but he 
soon mastered the State laws or statutes, read 
carefully Blackstone's "Commentaries" and 
other text-books, and became a fairly well-read 
lawyer, though he never attempted to practise. 
He held the position on the bench for four 
years, and acquitted himself so much to the sat- 
isfaction of the people they would gladly have 
continued him, but he had no taste for public 
office, and felt that his life-work was in his busi- 
ness pursuits, which were then calling for his 
undivided attention. From that time to the 
end of his life he was known as Judge Foster. 

Soon after his marriage and the renewal of 
housekeeping in Petersburgh, he went to Cin- 
cinnati and brought back his aged mother, and 
she remained with him till her death in 1834, 
in the eighty-ninth year of her age. There 
always existed between the mother and son an 
unusually tender and affectionate relation. He 
was the child of his parents' old age, both hav- 

3 



34 /ftattbcw "CClataon JFOBtet 



ing passed fifty years at his birth. The mother 
was a woman of considerable refinement, being 
of a family of well-to-do tradespeople, and the 
stories of her life show her to have been pos- 
sessed of great strength of mind, and character- 
istics which contributed to mould the life of her 
son, with whom she spent her latest years. 
She was an earnest Christian, and a great stu- 
dent of the Bible. Towards the end of her 
days she became a child again, but in her 
dotage her religious convictions seemed the 
brighter. It is related that she often did not get 
to the breakfast table until the meal was nearly 
finished, but when she came every one must 
wait till she had said grace ; and at that period 
her memory of the Bible seemed freshened, as 
after she had forgotten who her last and most 
dearly loved son was, she would repeat chapter 
after chapter with the greatest accuracy. Judge 
Foster often spoke of his mother, and always 
with the greatest gratitude and tenderness, and 
even to the day of his death he could not men- 
tion her name without the tears moistening his 
eyes. Her gentleness and devotion developed 
largely the affectionate side of his nature, as 
shown in his domestic life by the frequency 



d&ercantfle %ifc 35 



with which he saluted his wife and children 
with kisses; and his brother James, who lived 
at Cincinnati, and with whom he usually ex- 
changed annual visits, he always kissed and 
embraced on his arrival and departure. 

In 1835 he retired temporarily from the mer- 
cantile business in which he had been engaged 
continuously for about fifteen years. The 
credit system was then almost entirely the 
method of business, accounts running from one 
end of the year to another, and being adjusted 
by barter, the farmer bringing to the merchant 
the surplus products of his fields, which the lat- 
ter sent to market in flatboats down the rivers. 
This constituted an endless chain of unsettled 
accounts which had accumulated into a very 
considerable sum. Judge Foster concluded 
that they could only be adjusted by going out of 
his mercantile business temporarily and giving 
attention to the collection of these accounts. 
A story of this period is told illustrative of 
some of the difficulties he encountered in this 
work. A fellow who had proved to be improv- 
ident and dishonest had secured considerable 
credit on goods purchased at the store, and 
after all other methods had been exhausted, suit 



36 dfcattbew TOlateott ffoster 



was brought. The only evidence of the pur- 
chase and delivery of the goods was the entry in 
the books of the store, and the debtor testified 
upon oath that he had never received the 
goods. Nevertheless the magistrate gave judg- 
ment for the full amount claimed. The defend- 
ant expressed great surprise, and asked if he 
had not sworn that he never received the goods. 
' Yes," said the plain-spoken squire, " but you 
swore to a d — d lie; Matthew Foster's books 
would send any man to the penitentiary." 

While he was engaged in the effort to settle 
his outstanding business, he transferred his resi- 
dence to a farm of one hundred and sixty acres 
which he had purchased, situated one mile 
southwest of Petersburgh. Here, on a hill com- 
manding a full view of the main street of the 
village, he had erected quite a commodious 
house, and, for that period, one of imposing 
appearance. It was constructed of logs or 
hewn timbers, two stories high, with two good- 
sized rooms on the ground floor and a broad 
porch or open space between. The chimneys 
were built of brick made and burnt on the 
farm ; the windows of sash, and glazed ; the doors 
fitted with hardware fixtures ; and the house had 




▼ ,■!. ^ ■■■'■ «.5% 2 VS"^'' Ji 






Mercantile %ite 



37 



many other evidences of great improvement 
and advance since the first cabin was built in 
1819. There were also good outhouses, such 
as a cool dairy, and storehouse for provisions ; a 
smokehouse for curing meats, etc. ; and, a little 
later, a large and well-appointed barn of frame, 
which for years was the pride of the neighbor- 
hood. Judge Foster was not only a good 
farmer, but an excellent gardener, and very 
fond of flowers. This farm, as the writer re- 
members it in his childhood days, was a dream 
of beauty, a delight to his eyes as well as his 
stomach. The residence was set back from the 
main road quite a distance, and approached 
through a garden tastefully arranged and orna- 
mented with deciduous and evergreen trees, 
shrubbery, and a variety of flowers, vines, and 
arbors. On one side of this was a large orchard 
of fruit trees of the choicest varieties, and on 
the other side was the small fruit and vegetable 
garden, carefully laid off in walks and beds. 

A part of the furniture of the house, like 
that of most well-to-do farmers of the pe- 
riod, consisted of the loom and the large and 
small spinning-wheels. The rattle of the loom 
and the music of the spinning-wheels are still 



38 flfcattbew Watson ffoster 



retained in the memory of the older children of 
this household. As late as 1843, when the 
oldest son was taken by his father to the State 
College at Bloomington, one or more of his 
suits of clothes, spun into yarn and woven into 
jeans in the home, was cut out and made up 
by the mother. Native-born residents of the 
county, still living, tell of the common practice 
in those early days of the manufacture on the 
farm of all the articles of wearing apparel — the 
leather tanned at home, and made into shoes; 
the hat of home-made felt or plaited straw, and 
the cap of coon-skins or other furs ; all articles 
of clothing made from flax, cotton, or wool 
produced on the farm, and woven into tow-cloth 
or coarse linen, jeans, or linsey-woolsey, and 
often also made from the skins of deer and 
other animals. 

Another attractive feature of the farm-house 
was the great, generous fire-place, five feet and 
more in width, with a broad brick hearth. In 
the deep recess was placed a great slow-consum- 
ing gum back-log, and the blazing fire was piled 
high with hickory from the huge wood-pile laid 
in close proximity to the house before the 
winter set in; and around the cheerful hearth 



Mercantile Xife 39 



were gathered in the winter evenings the in- 
mates, reinforced often by the itinerant preacher 
(always a welcome guest), and the neighbors, and 
here were discussed the crops, the business, the 
religious meetings, the country gossip, and pol- 
itics. In front of the semicircle was placed a 
great basket filled with apples from the excel- 
lent orchard, and from which, at pleasure, the 
party helped themselves during the evening. 

Among the favorite sports of the farmers 
were shooting matches, at which they congre- 
gated in large numbers to test their skill as 
marksmen and contest for the prizes offered. 
The forests abounded in wild game, such as 
deer and turkeys, and not infrequently bears 
were found; and hence the early settlers were 
usually good marksmen. The older children of 
the family remember the pride their father took 
in exhibiting the prizes he won in these games; 
and the long rifle in its rack over the door in 
the living-room was a well-known household 
article. 

In those days the people gave themselves 
very much to the discussion of politics. Judge 
Foster completed his naturalization in 1823 ; 
and although seldom a candidate for office, and 



4o dfcattbew *Kflat0on poster 



only for such as were unremunerative and de- 
manded of him as a leading citizen, he always 
took an active part in public affairs. He was a 
warm advocate of the system of protection to 
American industries, and public improvements 
through national aid, and was for many years a 
recognized leader of the Whig party in the 
county. He took a prominent part in the cele- 
brated Harrison campaign of 1840, and was an 
ardent admirer of Henry Clay, whose defeat 
for President in 1844 was a sad disappointment 
to him. An incident of the Harrison campaign 
is worthy of record. The excitement ran high, 
and his earnest temperament placed him in the 
lead of his party associates. Betting on the 
result was greatly in vogue, and being challenged 
by one of the opposing leaders, he made a 
wager, the Democrat placing a deed to his farm 
against Judge Foster's deposit of its value in 
money in the hands of the stakeholder. After 
Harrison's election was determined, the Demo- 
crat manfully came forward and authorized the 
stakeholder to make a delivery of the deed, 
though it took from him his whole estate, and 
left him and his family penniless. Judge Foster 
accepted the deed, and at once, by a similar 



dftercantile Xife 41 



instrument, transferred it to the man's wife. 
But the incident was such a conspicuous illus- 
tration of the folly of betting, and the impres- 
sion made was so lasting, that he never again 
made a wager, and did all he could to discoun- 
tenance the practice. He frequently said to his 
children and friends, in a jocular way: " Never 
bet more than a picayune (a Spanish coin of six 
and a fourth cents), and never pay your gam- 
bling debts." 

For four years he gave active attention to the 
development of his farm, and to a second one 
he owned about two miles away, in the White 
River bottom. As indicating the extent of 
their production, it may be stated that on his 
home farm, besides other products, he fattened 
for market as many as two hundred hogs in a 
season, and his bottom farm yielded as much as 
twelve thousand bushels of corn, a large crop 
for those days of small farms and limited supply 
of labor. But in 1839 ne returned to his mer- 
cantile pursuits, having erected a large store 
building and comfortable residence in Peters- 
burgh, and from that time until his change of 
residence to Evansville he continued in this 
business, though still owning his two farms and 



42 flfcattbew Watson jfoster 



maintaining the flatboat trade as an adjunct. to 
his store. In this year there came to his assist- 
ance a young clerk who remained in his employ 
for many years, and as a merchant, real estate 
and general dealer, and in public office, has 
since been and still continues a prominent 
and respected citizen of Pike County — Goodlet 
Morgan, Esq., from whom many of the facts of 
this memoir have been obtained. 

As the fruit of their marriage, and during 
their residence in Pike County, there were born 
to Judge and Mrs. Foster six children who at- 
tained adult age: George Foster (1830), Eliza 
Jane (1834), John Watson (1836), Alexander 
Hamilton (1838), Eleanor (1840), and James 
Hiram (1842). John Watson and Alexander 
Hamilton were born on the farm, and the others 
in Petersburgh. These children during their 
life in Pike County were raised much as the 
children about them, with more comforts and 
advantages than their parents, but in the sim- 
plicity of early Indiana days before the time of 
free schools, public libraries, newspapers, rail- 
roads, and the luxuries of modern times. They 
wore the home-made jeans and linsey-woolseys, 
and on the farm during the summer were happy 



jflBercanttle life 43 



to run barefoot with a loose-flowing coarse linen 
or tow-cloth gown. The older ones were taught 
to take a hand on the farm, in the lighter labors 
of the field, and the dairy, and domestic tasks. 
Schools were only held for a few weeks in the 
winter months, on the subscription plan, and of 
these they took every advantage. The three 
older children remember with gratitude and 
great respect the venerable schoolmaster who 
taught in the old log schoolhouse a mile away 
from the farm, Franklin Sawyer, who did much 
to inspire their juvenile minds with a desire for 
an education, and exercised a salutary influence 
on the whole community. 




III. 
IRcmowil to Ewmsville 

Twenty-seven years of Judge Foster's life 
were spent in Pike County, the early ones full 
of trials and hardships, and the later ones in 
absorbing business cares ; but now in the prime 
of his manhood, and with a numerous family 
about him, he began to feel that he needed a 
broader field than the country store for the ex- 
ercise of his business talents, and better facili- 
ties for the education of his children. He 
therefore decided to change his residence to 
Evansville. This town had been located about 
the time of his arrival in the country, and was 
first seen by him as a hamlet of a few log houses 
in 1 8 19, when he came down the Ohio River on 
the flatboat carrying all his worldly goods, en 
route to Pike County. He had been cognizant 
of its history and slow growth from that time 
forward, as it was his landing-place on the return 
trips from New Orleans, it becoming the entre- 



"Removal to Evansville 45 



pot for all the interior country watered by the 
Wabash and White rivers. He was early im- 
pressed with its advantageous situation geo- 
graphically, and felt that it might be made a 
great centre of trade and manufacturing indus- 
tries. He removed to Evansville in the spring 
of 1846, and at once established himself in gen- 
eral merchandizing. The town was then begin- 
ning to recover somewhat from the general 
bankruptcy of the country and the disastrous 
effects of the breakdown of the system of in- 
ternal improvements under State auspices, 
Evansville having been designated as the south- 
ern terminus of the Wabash and Erie Canal, 
and being greatly depressed by its failure. At 
that time the population numbered about three 
thousand five hundred. 

Within two years after his arrival his business 
had grown to an extent requiring larger accom- 
modation, and he purchased the lots on the 
corner of First and Main Streets, adjoining the 
State Bank, now the Old National Bank, and in 
the two buildings then standing he divided his 
business, according to the existing order of 
trade, into groceries and dry goods, which in 
those days embraced all branches of merchan- 



46 Aattbew Matson poster 



dise, and entered upon a wholesale or jobbing 
trade which in a few years grew to compara- 
tively large proportions, and extended to the 
adjoining regions of Indiana, Illinois, and Ken- 
tucky. Under his enterprising spirit, the two 
frame houses in which his business was being 
carried on, and a residence house adjoining, gave 
place to the brick buildings which now occupy 
that corner, and which at the time were quite 
noted as constituting the most imposing block 
in the place, and marking quite an advance in 
architecture. 

Judge Foster was not a stranger in Evans- 
ville, and from the first his residence there was 
marked by an active interest in all public enter- 
prises calculated to advance its prosperity or 
to improve the social or moral condition of its 
people. He was an earnest advocate of the con- 
struction of the wharf or levee in front of the 
town to replace the bluff banks of the river, the 
first important improvement in its history. He 
took a leading part in the movement which re- 
sulted in the construction of the first railroad 
leading out of the place, known in its origin as 
the Evansville and Crawfordsville, now the 
Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad. He was 



IRemoval to iSvmsvitte 47 



made a member of the first board of directors, 
was largely influential in securing the subscrip- 
tions of stock upon which the road was built, 
gave to the enterprise much of his money and 
time, and remained a director up to near the 
close of his life. Soon after his arrival he was 
made a director of the Evansville branch of the 
Bank of the State of Indiana, the only financial 
institution in the town for many years. He 
was first associated with John Douglas as presi- 
dent, and afterwards with George W. Rathbone, 
at the time that Hon. Hugh McCullough, twice 
Secretary of the Treasury, acted as the head of 
the State organization, and with whom he estab- 
lished a close friendship. He remained a di- 
rector of the bank till his oldest son, George, 
became associated with him in business, and he 
retired from the position in his favor. 

He gave a great deal of his time to municipal 
affairs, having been early elected a member of 
the Common Council, and for several years was 
almost consecutively chosen a member. It was 
an office without compensation, and in the in- 
fancy of the city the most prominent citizens 
lent their services in this capacity to the pub- 
lic. Every good enterprise received his sup- 



48 ZlBattbew Watson ffoster 



port, but he was especially interested in estab- 
lishing the free public school system, which has 
become so great an honor to the municipality, 
but which was only inaugurated after much dis- 
cussion and bitter opposition. He was always 
conscientious in the discharge of his public 
trusts, and spent much time on the Council, es- 
pecially when it acted as an Equalization Board 
in fixing the valuation of real property for taxa- 
tion. The assessment for a year when he had 
acted on the Board was severely criticized by 
Mr. Willard Carpenter, a prominent citizen, and 
a large owner of real estate, and he charged that 
the members of the Board had discriminated in 
favor of their own property. This was indig- 
nantly denied by Judge Foster, and in proof of 
his sincerity he offered to sell any of his real 
estate to Mr. Carpenter at the assessed value. 
In the heat of the controversy the latter ac- 
cepted the proposition, but, notwithstanding the 
judge owned a considerable number of business 
houses and unimproved lots, Mr. Carpenter 
selected a single piece, and that the lot on which 
the judge had built a very comfortable residence, 
and had only recently occupied it. Notwith- 
standing the lot selected was the one of all 



"Removal to JSvansvtlle 49 

others the sale of which gave him the greatest 
inconvenience, and the selection was made ex- 
pressly for that reason, he very promptly ac- 
cepted its assessed value in payment, and re- 
moved to another house until he could build 
a new residence. Another incident is told, 
connected with the municipality, illustrative of 
his somewhat impetuous temperament. Mr. 
Carpenter was frequently before the Council, 
complaining of its action. During one of his 
criticisms he called in question the truth of one 
of Judge Foster's statements, whereupon the 
latter instantly jumped to his feet, seized an 
iron ink-stand on the council table, and hurled 
it at Carpenter, scattering the ink over his col- 
leagues at the table, and would have followed up 
the attack had he not been prevented by them. 
Among other of the movements to which he 
gave considerable attention was the effort to 
organize the merchants and capitalists of the 
young city into a Board of Trade, with a view 
to enlarging the area of its commerce, and 
making its advantages known to manufac- 
turers. He occupied the position of president 
of the Board for some time, and exerted him- 
self to make it a success, but only with indiffer- 
4 



50 rtftattbcw tUatson ffoetcr 



ent results, as the movement seemed to be 
somewhat in advance of the times. He was 
also active in the establishment of a library 
association, contributing to it many books and 
considerable sums of money. During his pres- 
idency several series of lectures by men of na- 
tional reputation were maintained. The asso- 
ciation continued its existence for many years, 
until absorbed in the Willard Library. 

When the family came to Evansville there 
was no church edifice of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian denomination in the city, and they 
worshipped with the Presbyterian congregation 
which occupied what was known as the " Old 
Church on the Hill," the first house of wor- 
ship erected in Evansville, and the successor of 
which is the present Walnut Street Presbyterian 
Church. Judge Foster was not a church com- 
municant, but he was a thoroughly Christian 
man, was fond of and read much from the 
Bible, was a very regular attendant on the 
Sunday services, and always a liberal contrib- 
utor to religious causes. The children well re- 
member with what regularity and persistency 
after their dear mother's death he used to con- 
duct them twice each Sabbath to the " Old 



•Removal to JSvansvUle 51 



Church," and seat them and the other attend- 
ants of the family in the two pews just in front 
of the pulpit. Immediately after the removal 
to Evansville Mrs. Foster united with a few 
other members in organizing a Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church. She had been born in 
that church, her mother being an active mem- 
ber of it; she herself had been the main " pil- 
lar" of the congregation in Petersburgh, and 
she naturally felt a desire to worship with her 
own people. Steps were at once taken to erect 
a building; Judge Foster became president of 
the Board of Trustees, and contributed to the 
enterprise freely of his time and money; but 
Mrs. Foster was not permitted to see the con- 
summation of the movement to which she had 
consecrated her prayers and labors. 

She was not blessed with a strong constitu- 
tion, having inherited from her parents an affec- 
tion of the lungs, which required constant 
attention to her health. Her life on the farm 
and in the village in those early days was one 
of many privations and considerable manual 
labor. She was devoted to her husband's in- 
terests, and in her desire to assist and lighten 
his arduous cares she did more than was even 



52 /ifcattbew Watson poster 



required of her. As the mother of eight chil- 
dren (two of whom died in infancy), she had 
many cares, and until the family came to Evans- 
ville, her life was necessarily one of much 
drudgery and privation. In the new home she 
was surrounded with unaccustomed comforts 
and relieved in great measure of household 
labors, but, unfortunately, the disease which she 
had inherited had taken fast hold ; and while for 
three years she greatly enjoyed her relaxation 
from care and work, she was never so strong 
physically as to really participate with much 
zest in her new life. Her devoted and dis- 
tressed husband did all that was possible, seek- 
ing to divert her mind and improve her health 
by visits with her by steamer to Cincinnati, and 
urging her to try the change of climate by a 
voyage to New Orleans; but she preferred to 
spend her last days among her own family, for 
whom she had labored and so unselfishly given 
her life. The immediate event which ter- 
minated her days well illustrates her spirit of 
sweet charity and self-sacrifice. Before steam 
navigation had been perfected on the western 
rivers, explosion of boilers of steamboats was 
very common and destructive of life. One of 



TRemoval to Bvansrtlle 53 



these sad accidents occurred to the steamer 
" Embassy " just above Evansville, in 1849, an< ^ 
a large number of the dying and wounded were 
brought into an improvised hospital, and appeals 
were made to the women of the town to take 
charge of it as nurses. Mrs. Foster promptly 
responded to the call, and devoted several days 
to constant care of the unfortunate strangers; 
but during her labors she contracted a cold 
which, in her broken state of health, rapidly 
undermined her strength, and, after a few 
weeks' illness, she quietly passed away in the 
presence of her bereaved family. This sketch 
of her life may be fittingly closed by an extract 
from notes furnished for the preparation of this 
memoir, written by her eldest son, George, who 
knew her longest and best : 

I wish I could write you as I feel towards mother. 
When I remember her devotion to her children, her con- 
stant watchfulness for their comfort and welfare, and the 
tenderness with which she ministered to them, her 
affection for father, her Christian life — in fact, all that is 
lovely in woman — words fail me. I believe she sacri- 
ficed her life in her exertions for her family ; her greatest 
pleasure was in doing something for them. How thank- 
ful we should be that we had such a mother ! 



IV. 

Eoucatfon of tbe Gbfloren 

The death of his wife devolved upon Judge 
Foster the sole responsibility and care of six 
children from nineteen to six years of age. The 
oldest son had completed his school days, and 
was receiving his practical commercial education 
in his father's mercantile establishment ; but all 
the other children had to be trained and edu- 
cated for the duties of life. Of his tender care 
and earnest solicitude for them in this critical 
period, something may be seen in his letters to 
the various members of the family. He was a 
ready correspondent, and his absence from home 
was marked by frequent letters to his wife while 
living, and in later years to his children ; as for 
some time after he located at Evansville his 
business required him to make annual visits to 
New Orleans or to the cities of the Atlantic 
seaboard as far as Boston. During the first 
absence after the sad event which brought to 



Education of tbe dbdorcn 55 

him so much grief and care, he wrote to his 
oldest daughter, then fifteen years of age, the 
following letter : 

New Orleans, February 2, 1850. 

My Dear Eliza : I arrived here this morning, and 
have spent the day in business about which I have 
written to George. I expect to go up the coast to-mor- 
row, and shall use all diligence to make my stay as 
short as possible, for my heart yearns towards home, and 
I am uneasy about my little ones, who are left with- 
out a head. I know George will do all he can to aid 
you in getting along with the children. Tell them it is 
my wish that they should be kind to one another, and 
obedient to you and George in my absence. I hope you 
will do all in your power to keep them clean and orderly, 
and to do so you must stay as much as possible at home, 
and have as little company as politeness will permit. 

My dear Eliza, this is the first letter I ever addressed 
you. Your mother was my earliest and dearest friend. 
To her my thoughts ever turned in my absence from 
home ; but that attraction, like all earthly good, has fled. 
As with feelings of deep and gloomy interest I now 
address you, all the past rushes on my memory. Twelve 
months ago, in all the fatal gloom of disease and death 
that then wrapped this city (the prevailing plague), I 
addressed my letters to your mother, in the fulness of 
hope and the bright anticipation of meeting her in health 
and happiness, but now — 



56 flbattbew TKIlatson ffoeter 



You, my dear child, are the representative of that holy- 
mother to whom my heart ever turned with pleasing 
anticipation and love ; but she has gone whither we are 
all hastening, and where may God in his mercy allow us 
to meet her. My feelings are different from those I have 
ever experienced in my former absence from home. I 
am more anxious to return than ever before, yet the spe- 
cial object of my attraction at home is wanting. I wish 
I was with you, my dear children, yet I have not that 
hope of happiness that heretofore made my home so de- 
sirable. I am not wanting in love to my children, yet 
my home is not what it used to be, nor will it ever be, 
for its light and life is buried in the grave with your dear 
departed mother. Oh, my dear Eliza, imitate your 
mother's example, as you resemble her in person, and 
may Heaven give you her piety, her Christian meekness, 
her spotless reputation ; and may your life be like hers, 
pure and holy, and you will be the joy and solace of my 
old age. Kiss the children for me ; and may God bless 
you, is the prayer of your affectionate 

Father. 



On his return from New Orleans he found it 
necessary to give some special attention to the 
educational pursuits of the older children. He 
always placed a high estimate on the advantages 
of scholastic education, of which he had felt 
the sore need, and which he had so diligently 



Education of tbe Children 57 

sought to supply by his own unaided efforts. 
He was accustomed to tell his children that it 
was the best fortune he could leave them, and 
that he was ready to give them as liberal and 
advanced schooling as their inclination and ap- 
plication would warrant. Although he was a 
strong advocate of the free public school sys- 
tem, it required a campaign of several years to 
secure its establishment in Evansville; mean- 
while he united with other citizens in maintain- 
ing a private academy, presided over for several 
years by an enthusiastic and trained educator, 
Professor M. W. Safford, a man who exercised 
a marked influence in inspiring the youth of 
that day and community to prepare themselves 
for a collegiate course. 

His oldest son, George, had already spent 
some time at the State University at Blooming- 
ton and a collegiate institute at Vincennes, and 
was then preparing himself by practical appren- 
ticeship for admission as a merchant into co- 
partnership with his father, which occurred soon 
afterwards. Eliza and John W. had prepared 
themselves in Professor Safford's Academy for 
advanced study, and in the autumn of 185 1 
the former was sent to a female seminary at 



58 flBattbew taatson foster 



New Albany, and the latter entered the fresh- 
man class at the State University, and two 
years later Alexander H. followed in the same 
institution. The letters of Judge Foster to 
these absent children reveal not only his great 
solicitude for their proper training and welfare, 
but develop traits of his character and mind 
which can best be shown by extracts from a few 
out of the many still preserved by the children. 
In a letter to Eliza at New Albany, dated at 
New York, October 19, 185 1, he writes: 

My Dear Child : Your very acceptable favor post- 
marked the 1 2th instant, but without date, I found on my 
return from Boston this morning. It did my heart good 
to find letters from my dear children couched in language 
of respect and kindness. I had two from George, one 
from John, and one from you, and I have reason to be 
proud of all of you, for all were well written, all evinced 
the right spirit — the spirit of improvement founded on 
correct moral principles. I wrote you from Boston, and 
as I have to reply to all my letters, you must be content 
with a short one this time. I am in very good health 
and spirits (your letters have cheered me not a little), 
and I hope to be able to get through with my business 
this coming week ; so you may begin to look for me in 
about two weeks, and expect that shawl I have in my 
trunk. Give my kind regards to all your young friends. 



JEoucation of tbe Cbtloren 59 

The intimation in this letter that he would 
stop off on his way home, recalls the fact that it 
was his custom, during the absence of his chil- 
dren at school, to make them frequent visits, a 
practice not so readily observed in those days of 
imperfect locomotion. His letters were gener- 
ally commendatory and affectionate in their 
spirit, but sometimes he felt it necessary to deal 
in kindly reproof, as will be seen in the follow- 
ing extract from a letter addressed to John W., 
written a little later than the foregoing : 

Your last letter was dated the 8th ultimo, which was 
promptly replied to, and in which I enclosed you $20. 
Not having your acknowledgment of the receipt of it, I 
begin to think it must have miscarried ; and, indeed, from 
your silence, I am fearful something must be the matter 
with you — either disabled by sickness, or your absence 
has worked a change in your feelings, so that you feel 
no interest about your home associations, and only 
deem it necessary to write as a matter of business which 
can be put off until a *' convenient season." Your last 
letter showed a very great falling off in your home inter- 
est. The first two pages were occupied in excuses or 
other apologies for not writing oftener, and prove noth- 
ing at all. 

It is not necessary to have the latest news, nor to see 
much of the world, to make a letter interesting from a 



6o dfcattbew TKflatson afoeter 



son to his parent. The news we have by telegraph as 
soon as it transpires, and the ways of the world are not 
of interest except as we are interested in or by them. 
But in the welfare of a child a parent always takes a 
deep interest (that is, a parent that feels as most parents 
do). Well, I should have felt an interest in knowing 
your boarding-house arrangements ; the name and char- 
acter of your host or hostess, as the case might be ; 
your room-mate, his disposition, his employments, 
amusements, and associations ; your studies, with ob- 
servations on the same. Little incidents attending you, 
impressions that are daily forming your mind and 
moulding your will, have far more interest to me than 
all the " foreign and domestic " items of all dailies you 
could quote were you in New York or Philadelphia. 
You are now at an age when impressions are made 
more lasting than perhaps at any other period of life ; 
and to know the effect that association and reading are 
making on your mind, is to me of deep interest; and did 
you open to me your mind freely, tell me your thoughts, 
feelings, and impressions, I would take much interest (as 
I feel more than anyone else) in pointing out error and 
in directing you to truth, as far as my experience and 
observation have aided me in finding them. 

For him farm life always had a fascination, 
and he considered it a useful part of an educa- 
tion. He therefore made it a point to have his 
sons possess some practical knowledge of it, 



Education of tbe Gbtloren 61 



by spending one or more seasons on the farm 
in Pike County after the family removed to 
Evansville. 

Although it will anticipate events somewhat, 
in order to complete the extracts from letters to 
the children during their school days, two more 
are given below. John W. had completed his 
college course, graduated from the State Uni- 
versity, and was then in attendance upon the 
Law School of Harvard University ; and Alex- 
ander H., who had been pursuing his studies at 
the State University, had abandoned the plan 
of completing the regular course, and had writ- 
ten his father for permission to return home 
and devote himself to business pursuits. To 
this request his father replied under date of 
March 16, 1856, as follows: 

My Dear Son : Your very good letter of was 

duly to hand. We will be much pleased to have you 
home with us ; and If you have not progressed as far in 
the "higher branches" as some others, you have the 
" elements," and, if you wish, can improve yourself in 
the useful branches of a good education. We have 
work enough for you and a fair prospect for you to 
make yourself useful in acquiring the knowledge of a 
merchant. I am getting old enough to give up active 



62 /Rattbew TKllatson ffoeter 



business, and if you prove yourself competent to give 
George the assistance he requires, I have no doubt he 
will be willing to exchange a " senior " for a "junior ;" 
but that will depend on yourself. I am satisfied you 
have ability enough to make a good merchant, but abil- 
ity is not all, nor is it half. Close application is much 
better. Very moderate ability, with close and unwearied 
application, will make a successful merchant, who, in 
the face of close competition, will come out far ahead of 
the abler or more learned merchant of negligent or care- 
less habits and of liberal or fast living. 

A merchant worthy of the name should endeavor first 
to acquire a reputation for honesty and uprightness. 
This can only be acquired by a firm determination to 
be always guided by one steady right, the great cardinal 
principle of right. This must be cultivated. Never 
suffer yourself to be led away by expediency, or by the 
fact that the person you are dealing with would take 
advantage of you, but act honestly and fairly with every 
one. If in your dealing with men you become satisfied a 
dishonest act has been practised on you, always avoid 
any business transactions with the party, but never 
retaliate. Be honest from principle, and forego an op- 
portunity even to make yourself whole, if you have to 
violate an honest principle to do it. This, my son, is 
the cardinal principle for a successful merchant — 
always, under every circumstance of prosperity or 
adversity, always do right, and act justly to all 



Boueatfon of tbe Gbfloren 63 



In a letter from New Orleans to John W., at 
Harvard University, dated April 27, 1856, he 
says: 

Alexander has returned home and has gone to work. 
I think he has improved, and I have but little doubt he 
will do very well. George gives him three hundred 
dollars a year. I board him for one hundred, and he has 
two hundred to clothe himself and for pocket money. I 
will return him his board money when he becomes of age. 

I had two letters from home to-day. They were very 
glad tidings ; all were well, and mother and the children 
were at George's to supper. A few years more and the 
children will also have their own homes, and we will 
have taken our last supper on earth ; but this ought not 
to produce sorrow. Let us do our duty while we live. 
I hope to hear from you on my return home, if it so 
please heaven. May God bless you, and keep you in 
health till we meet again. 

From 1850 onward for several years Judge 
Foster was greatly absorbed in his large mercan- 
tile business and allied matters, such as his bank 
and railroad directorships, the erection of build- 
ings, and attention to public affairs. The fore- 
going extracts from his letters show his deep 
solicitude for his children's welfare, but, with 
the great pressure of business upon his time 
and thoughts, he found himself totally unable 



64 dfcattbew "OClatson poster 



to give the attention to domestic affairs which 
was demanded by the growing needs of his 
family. On November 18, 185 1, he was quietly 
married to Mrs. Sarah Kazar, the widow of 
Nelson Kazar, a woman of mature age, for 
several years a resident of Evansville, where 
she enjoyed the highest social standing as a 
person of culture, intelligence, and Christian 
character. This alliance proved a most fortu- 
nate and happy one, as Mrs. Foster became 
at once a mother to the younger children, and 
by her amiable and conciliating disposition 
she gained the affection of the older ones, and 
they have always cherished for her the deep- 
est gratitude for her unvarying kindness to 
them, and for her devotion to and love for their 
father. As the fruit of this marriage there were 
born two children, Matthew William (1852), 
and Sarah Elizabeth (1857). Between these 
and the other children there has always existed 
the most harmonious and affectionate relation, 
and no difference has ever arisen to mar the 
peace of the family circle. As the mother 
enters her eightieth year, she is honored with 
the love and veneration of all the children, 
even to the third generation. 




SARAH KAZAR FOSTER 



(From a Painting, 1852.) 



V. 

Slavery anfc tbe Civil TJ&ar 

The political storm which broke upon the 
country with the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise, in 1854, and the attempt to force slavery 
into the Territories north of the line fixed by 
that Compromise, was one which caused Judge 
Foster much concern, and he was an active 
participant in the events to which it gave rise. 
Southwestern Indiana was largely settled by 
people from the slave States, and though there 
was a feeling generally prevailing that it was 
unwise to have disturbed the existing political 
conditions by the repealing act, when it came 
to a question of excluding slavery from all the 
new Territories of the United States, the pre- 
dominant sentiment of the inhabitants of that 
section of Indiana was against the anti-slavery 
cause. But the spirit of the young pioneer, 
which, in 1817, had led him to turn his back 
upon St. Louis and its tempting future of pros- 

5 



66 /Bbattbew THlatson ffoster 



perity because it was to remain a slaveholder's 
city, had, with nearly forty years of active par- 
ticipation in political affairs, ripened into an 
earnest conviction that slavery was a curse 
which, for the good of the country, should be 
exterminated. 

The presidential campaign of 1852 had re- 
sulted in the retirement of the Whig party 
from the administration of the national govern- 
ment, under discouraging circumstances, and the 
political convulsion of 1854 so divided its ad- 
herents that its further existence as a national 
organization became an impossibility. In 
Evansville and Vanderburgh County the large 
majority of the Whigs united with or organized 
the American party, popularly known as the 
' ' Know Nothings ' ' from its early practice of 
secret meetings. Judge Foster sympathized 
with that party so far as it sought to remedy 
the abuses which had been created in the natu- 
ralization laws by the legislation of the States. 
For instance, there had been introduced in the 
revised Constitution of Indiana of 1852 a pro- 
vision which gave to a foreign-born person a 
right to vote after a residence in the country of 
twelve months, and this he regarded as an un- 



Slavery an& tbe Civil Mat 67 



wise provision ; but he considered the secret 
meetings of the new party and its religious pro- 
scription as contrary to the spirit of our institu- 
tions. But his chief objection was that this 
party did not meet the great emergency which 
had been created by the aggressive spirit of the 
advocates of slavery extension. He therefore 
devoted his best energies to the organization of 
a " Free-Soil" party in his and the adjoining 
counties of the State. 

The term ' ' abolitionist ' ' was an epithet of 
reproach, in that day and region, applied to all 
who allied themselves to the Free-Soil party; 
and, with the overshadowing influence of slavery 
which existed on the opposite side of the river in 
Kentucky, it required considerable moral cour- 
age to take the lead in the organization of the 
new and proscribed party. Only a small band 
of the native-born citizens were found willing 
to join with him in the movement, but they 
received a considerable contingent from the for- 
eign-born citizens of German origin, who had 
fled from the tyranny and exactions of their 
own land, and had settled in Evansville in large 
numbers. Out of the Free-Soil elements of 
1854 came the Republican party, which carried 



68 /fcattbew tJWatson jfoeter 



on its first presidential campaign in 1856, with 
Fremont as its candidate. Judge Foster en- 
tered heartily into the contest, and was active 
in organizing a Republican club, in securing 
speakers, and in building up an anti-slavery 
sentiment in the community; but, with the best 
efforts of himself and associates, there were cast 
only three hundred and seventy-two votes for 
Fremont for President out of a total poll of 
three thousand and ninety-two in the county. 
The generation which has grown up since that 
eventful period can hardly realize the bitter 
spirit of proscription which existed in Evans- 
ville in the early days of the anti-slavery agita- 
tion. It was severe enough against those whose 
interests were confined to Evansville ; but in the 
case of Judge Foster it was the more marked, 
as his large wholesale trade extended into the 
neighboring regions of Kentucky and Tennes- 
see. He was not, however, deterred by the 
loss of trade, nor were he and his political asso- 
ciates discouraged by the small vote cast for 
their candidate. 

The excitement precipitated on the country 
in 1854 was not destined to be stilled or to pass 
away with the triumph of the Democratic party 



Slavery an5 tbe Civil TKHar 69 



in 1856, and the organization in Evansville was 
kept up with renewed interest. Mr. Seward, in 
the East, proclaimed that the contest was an 
"irrepressible conflict," and that sooner or 
later the United States must become entirely a 
slaveholding or a free-labor nation; and Mr. 
Lincoln, in the West, declared that " a house 
divided against itself cannot stand," and that 
the Government could not endure " half slave 
and half free." The issue so clearly stated by 
the leaders of the anti-slavery party had for its 
practical application the fate of Kansas as a 
slave or a free Territory, and the whole country 
was kept in a state of feverish excitement, in 
which Judge Foster, with his ardent tempera- 
ment, participated to the fullest extent. His 
brother-in-law, Fielding Johnson, with whom 
he had been associated in business, about this 
time, as already stated, went to Kansas and be- 
came a personal participant in the contest, and 
this added to his interest and enthusiasm. Be- 
sides doing what he could to keep up the politi- 
cal organization and sentiment at home, he was 
active in collecting and contributing funds to 
aid in the support of free-soil emigration to 
Kansas. 



70 fl&attbew TKlatson ffoeter 



About this time a public improvement in 
which he had taken much interest, and to which 
he had devoted considerable time, was com- 
pleted. As early as 1832, under a general sys- 
tem of public improvements through State 
control, the Wabash and Erie Canal was begun, 
and when completed was to connect Lake Erie 
at Toledo with the Ohio River at Evansville, 
traversing throughout Indiana the valley of the 
Wabash. While a resident of Pike County 
Judge Foster had been an enthusiastic sup- 
porter of this canal, and had devoted much 
time gratuitously to securing from the farmers 
the right of way through that county. The 
enterprise had shared the varying fortunes of 
the State public improvements, but after many 
disappointments, at the end of twenty-five years, 
it was finally completed. It was anticipated 
that the canal would open up to Evansville a 
new era of trade and prosperity, and, with the 
advice of his father, George Foster constructed 
on the bank of the canal in the city a large 
warehouse, and prepared to participate in the 
new commerce which it was confidently believed 
would be inaugurated. A few years' experience 
proved that all these hopes were illusory, as 



Slavery an& tbe Civil "Wllar 71 

railroads and the Civil War were destined to 
change the methods and currents of commerce, 
and the canal itself was so poorly constructed 
as to make the expense of its maintenance such 
a burden it had finally to be abandoned. 

But this event was the occasion of the 
practical retirement of Judge Foster from active 
business. For forty years he had led a very 
laborious and exacting life, and now that he 
was nearing the age of sixty he felt that he 
might well seek some rest and relaxation in his 
latter days. Four of his children had com- 
pleted their education and embarked in their 
chosen pursuits. He had acquired a sufficient 
competency to enable him to live in comfort 
and to educate the younger children. He 
therefore gradually closed up his wholesale 
mercantile business ; Alexander H. was ad- 
mitted into the firm of which George Foster 
was the active head; and the father, while 
retaining for a time an interest, retired from 
the management of the new business which had 
been transferred to the large warehouse on the 
Wabash and Erie Canal. Henceforth he had 
more leisure to devote to his family and to 
public affairs. 



72 flbattbew TJdatson poster 



The memorable presidential campaign of i860 
was coming on, and the excitement on the slav- 
ery question started in 1854, in place of abat- 
ing, had grown in intensity. The intervening 
events had satisfied both sections of the coun- 
try and all parties that the issue so squarely 
made, especially as to the future of the Territo- 
ries and the new States, would have to be as 
squarely met and settled. The nomination of 
Mr. Lincoln for President by the Republicans 
added new zeal to Judge Foster's interest in 
the cause. There was much in common in their 
early experience, and they had been neighbors 
during Mr. Lincoln's life in Indiana. He had 
followed the Lincoln-Douglas debate in 1858 
with the closest attention, and it had greatly 
confirmed him in the anti-slavery cause. Since 
the Fremont campaign of 1856 the Republican 
party in Vanderburgh County had received 
many accessions, and it was hoping to carry a 
majority of the votes with it at the coming 
election ; but to accomplish this result it was 
important to make up a local ticket of such per- 
sons as would add strength to the national 
ticket, and Judge Foster was urged to allow the 
use of his name for that purpose. He might 



Slavers an& tbe Civil mat 73 

have had any place he chose, but he had no 
desire for public office, and he only consented 
to the use of his name for the position of 
County Commissioner, an office similar to that 
of a city councilman, without stated salary. 

His admiration for Mr. Lincoln, and his de- 
votion to the anti-slavery cause, led him to give 
much of his time and means to the campaign, 
and he had the great gratification of seeing the 
county carried by a handsome majority, and 
also Mr. Lincoln triumphantly elected President 
of the United States. But his exaltation was 
mixed with serious concern. From the first he 
saw the gravity of the situation which con- 
fronted the country, with the transfer of the 
national administration from the slaveholders to 
the Free-Soil party, and he counselled modera- 
tion and conciliation in the conduct of the new 
government, in order to afford no pretext for 
the Southern States to inaugurate hostilities. 
He hoped and prayed for peace; but when the 
attack upon Fort Sumter, flying the national 
flag, came, which evoked a thrill of indignant 
patriotism throughout the entire North, he saw 
that the time for conciliation had passed, and 
gave his hearty approval to the President's call 



74 /ftattbew THflatson tfoeter 

to arms. But he shared the mistaken belief 
of our most prominent public men that the re- 
bellion could hardly become general. The Pres- 
ident's first call was for three months' volun- 
teers, and the Secretary of State had expressed 
the hope that the danger which threatened the 
country might be overcome before that time 
had expired ; but it early became apparent that 
all the slave States were bent upon rebellion, 
and the President's call, which soon followed, 
for three hundred thousand troops for three 
years' service, was a recognition of the fact that 
the country had entered upon a great and ob- 
stinate contest. 

It was now manifest to Judge Foster that the 
resources of the Government would be taxed to 
the utmost, and he felt that it was especially 
incumbent upon those who had been instru- 
mental in propagating the political views which 
had resulted in the triumph of the Republican 
party to give their utmost aid to the Govern- 
ment in this hour of its supreme need. He 
was himself past the age when he could be ac- 
cepted in the army, but he encouraged the 
enlistment of two of his sons under the first 
call for three years, John W. and Alexander 



Slavers and tbe Civil m&x 75 

H., and later in the contest, the younger son, 
James H. The first two had been recently mar- 
ried, and as they left their young wives behind, 
he gave them the assurance that these should 
be under his special care, and that whatever 
might be the fate of war, their wives and chil- 
dren should never suffer for the comforts of 
life. He not only furnished them the complete 
outfit for the service, but presented to the 
regiment to which they were attached a stand 
of colors of the richest material. 

In order to encourage the enlistment of 
troops he took the lead in a successful move- 
ment among the citizens to raise a fund to dis- 
tribute among the families of the soldiers who 
were needy, and as County Commissioner he 
secured further appropriations from the county 
funds. He was associated in all the organiza- 
tions for the relief of the soldiers in the field 
and the hospitals, and gave freely of his means 
to that end. The battle of Fort Donelson, one 
of the first important engagements in which his 
son John W. participated, was fought on the 
Cumberland River, within easy reach of Evans- 
ville by water. As soon as the news of the 
Union victory was flashed over the wires, a 



76 flfcattbew THIlatson poster 



steamboat was chartered at Evansville, hastily 
loaded with supplies for the hospitals and lux- 
uries for the soldiers, a corps of volunteer sur- 
geons and nurses was engaged, in which prepa- 
rations Judge Foster took an active part; and 
when ready the steamer carried to Fort Donel- 
son the Chief Executive of the State, Gov- 
ernor Morton, and his staff, in which he included 
Judge Foster. Not unmindful of his promise 
made when his son enlisted, he took with him 
the young wife and the little baby, knowing 
how much they would cheer the soldier in the 
field. And by such acts as this, and by the 
most delicate and affectionate attentions, he 
did all in his power to comfort the sons' wives 
in their hours of loneliness and solicitude. 

When the Civil War occurred he had retired 
from business, and his leisure was given up 
almost exclusively to matters connected with 
that momentous event, such as organizations 
for the relief of the soldiers' families, collecting 
supplies and comforts for the armies in the field 
and the hospitals, the Sanitary and Christian 
Commissions, and movements for the encour- 
agement of enlistments to recruit the constantly 
depleted forces in the field. He was a diligent 



Slavery anO tbe Civil TKHar 77 

reader of the war news which filled the daily- 
press; and the prolongation of the war, the 
defeats of the Union armies and the disap- 
pointments and discouragements of the contest 
greatly oppressed his patriotic soul. It would 
probably have been better for his peace of mind 
and his health of body if, in those terrible 
days, he had been more occupied with his own 
business. One who was intimately acquainted 
with him at that period writes: " His heart 
bled for his suffering country. His whole con- 
cern seemed to be for the cause of the imper- 
illed Union and its free institutions." 

He carried on a frequent correspondence 
with Governor Morton and generals of his 
acquaintance, respecting the conduct of the war 
and the measures taken for securing enlistment, 
and collecting and forwarding supplies to the 
soldiers. He wrote often, also, to his sons in 
the army, letters full of encouragement, advice, 
and criticism of the campaigns. An extract 
from one of the many letters to his son John 
W. will indicate the character of this cor- 
respondence which occupied so much of his 
time and thoughts. The latter was then on 
detached service in Kentucky under special 



78 flbattbcvv 'Uaataon foetet 



orders from General Grant, and the letter to 
him is dated September 8, 1862: 

My Dear Son ■ I have no direct information from 
you since you left. I have written a letter or two, but 
in the state of communication I do not know that they 
reached you. 

Well, on the whole, things look rather blue. We have 
certainly been badly worsted on the Potomac. The in- 
vasion of Kentucky by Kirby Smith shows great lack of 
military management somewhere ; and if our Western 
commanders had any discretion they have exercised it to 
little purpose. That an army of twelve to twenty-five 
thousand men can march through our lines nearly down 
to the Ohio River, in front of the largest commercial 
cities of the West, without obstruction, except by a few 
raw, undisciplined volunteers thrown forward without 
a general officer to command, or any organization to 
meet it, shows great want of generalship and foresight. 
The raid of Morgan was " a recognizance in force " to 
feel the way for Smith, and ought to have put our mili- 
tary authorities on the alert. But perhaps it is all to 
accomplish some great purpose of the Almighty. If 
this great rebellion had been crushed out last spring, as 
it could have been if our military leaders had pressed 
things in a Napoleonic style — I say, if that had been 
done, slavery would have remained in statu quo. But 
this prolongation of the war, this again bringing it down 
to the border, will compel a different policy ; and, to use 



Slavery an& tbe Civil "BClat 79 



the language of Fremont in his late Boston speech, 
" Our flag will cover none but free men." 

We are all glad to hear you came out of your fight 
with the guerrillas without damage and with success. 
May God in his goodness be always with you. The 
axiom of the ancients that " Fortune favors still the wise 
and brave " is true in war as in religion. A soldier or 
commander should be wise in his dispositions for a bat- 
tle, and never bring it on unless the chances for success 
are favorable ; but when in it he should evince bravery 
and cool judgment, with a quick eye to see weak points 
of the enemy, and energy to take advantage of them. 
Always impress this truism on your men, that " there 
is always less danger with our face to the foe than our 
back." My dear son, I feel proud of you, but I know 
we are all worms of the dust and mere instruments in 
the hands of the Almighty. May God in his kind provi- 
dence hold you in the hollow of his hand and make you 
the instrument of much good. 

By the way, I have been criticising your military 
movements, and I think with your present force you 
should have your base on the Ohio River, for many rea- 
sons. . . . We are all in our usual health. I feel 
some better than when you left. With much love I am 
your affectionate father. 



VI. 

Dis Deatb an& Character 

In the conclusion of the foregoing letter 
there is an allusion to the state of his health. 
In the autumn of 1862 there were indications 
that his usually robust constitution was giving 
way. His digestion became deranged, and that 
led to other disorders of his system. During 
the winter he was kept much indoors, and as 
the spring approached he became a confirmed 
invalid and was confined to his house. But he 
could read, and maintained unabated his inter- 
est in public affairs. He was no longer able to 
write to his sons in the army, but their wives 
read to him their letters, and he had the con- 
stant company and ministration of his family 
and friends. Early in April it became apparent 
that his sickness was unto death, and the sons 
were recalled from their regiments, to be present 
with the other members of the household at his 
approaching end. 



Dfs 2>eatb anO Character 81 



He came of a long-lived family, his father, 
mother, and two brothers in America having 
attained fourscore years, and he had enjoyed 
almost uniformly good health during his busy 
life. But he worried greatly over the war, and 
naturally felt a deep concern for his sons in the 
field ; and the anxious state of his mind doubt- 
less affected his digestion and nervous system. 
His pastor, who was with him much in the latter 
days, wrote thus of his illness : 

In the struggle which is now going on for the preser- 
vation of the nation's life, there was no sacrifice which 
he was not ready and willing to make, if it would only 
inure to his country's good. His spirit, in this regard, 
was the spirit of one who could say,, and without exag- 
geration or conceit : dulce et decorum est pro patria 
mori. It is the writer's belief that extreme anxiety for 
the success of the Government was one of the causes 
which hastened his death. 

As the end of his life drew near he was per- 
fectly conscious of his impending fate, and pos- 
sessed his mental faculties almost to the final 
hour. Before the war four of his children had 
married, and were all living in their own houses 
in Evansville. It was a source of much gratifi- 



82 flBattbew Watson poster 



cation to him that they were so happily estab- 
lished, and he took great pride in the grandchil- 
dren who were growing up about him. For 
some years it had been his practice to assemble 
all his children in the family mansion on Sab- 
bath afternoons, have a service of song, and 
gather them around the family table, grand- 
children and all, for supper. On Sunday, April 
12, 1863, his end seemed very near, and in the 
forenoon all the members of the family were 
summoned to the sickroom. When told, " We 
are all here," he said, " I thank God for that." 
Then he asked one of his sons to read from 
the Bible and to lead in prayer; and afterwards 
there was sung, to his great enjoyment, several 
of the hymns which he loved the best, and 
which had been so often heard in the Sabbath 
evening song service, among them " How Firm 
a Foundation," " Rock of Ages," and " Jesus, 
Lover of my Soul." At noon he rested quietly, 
and again in the afternoon was repeated, at his 
request, a religious service similar to that of 
the morning. At its conclusion he called his 
children around him and said: " I want you, 
my children, to be, as a family, loving and 
affectionate towards each other. I want you to 



f)fs Deatb an& Gbaractet 83 



love and fear God ; and I want to meet you all 
in heaven ; I expect to meet you there. Love 
your mother and be a comfort to her when I 
am gone, for she has been a good mother to 
you. And," said he, addressing the older 
members, " don't let the little ones forget me." 
Then he bade them individually farewell. It 
was a solemn and blessed time, a Sabbath scene 
which will never be forgotten by those who par- 
ticipated in it. Early on Monday morning, 
April 13, 1863, his spirit passed away. 

This biographical sketch of Matthew Watson 
Foster has been prepared in execution, in part, 
of his dying injunction that the " little ones," 
who had twined their affections so tenderly 
about his heart, should not forget him. Thirty- 
three years, the life of a generation, have 
passed since that memorable Sabbath. It was 
best that this sketch should be written after 
such an interval of time. The physical condi- 
tions of the country have undergone a notable 
transformation, the social and commercial rela- 
tions of the people are greatly different, and 
the nation has recovered from the blighting in- 
fluence of slavery and the desolations of war. 



84 d&attbew Tldatgon ffoeter 



The "little ones" then, the men and women 
of to-day, and the ever increasing band of de- 
scendants, can look back upon that life which 
is an unconscious part of themselves, with the 
added interest of the years which make its 
experience a growing contrast with their own. 

This sketch has been written with a sincere 
desire not only to interest, but also to benefit, 
the children who have had little or no personal 
acquaintance with him whose life is herein por- 
trayed, and with that object in view it may be 
well to note some of his traits of character. 
Prominent among these were his independence 
and industry. The first was shown when a lad, 
in his resolute journey to the West and his loca- 
tion in the wilderness of Indiana, and was ever 
a feature of his life. Industry was ingrained in 
his nature ; he was a tireless worker with his 
hands, first in laying the foundation of his for- 
tunes in the log cabin, then on the flatboat, 
and all through his mercantile career. And 
coupled with these is the lesson, not to despise 
the day of small things. From lowly begin- 
nings he attained to affluence and public use- 
fulness. 

These traits led him by close application to 



1bf6 Dcatb anb Character 85 

make good the defects of early education. In 
his own case and in the training of his children 
he showed a high appreciation of scholastic 
attainments, and he left to the children of the 
community in which he lived a rich legacy, in 
the free school system of which he was one of 
the founders. 

His was an unselfish and public-spirited life. 
He believed that every citizen owed much to 
the community, and that he should lend his 
efforts and services to make it better and enlarge 
its sphere of usefulness and enjoyment. He 
therefore gave freely of his time and money to 
public enterprises and benevolent and religious 
objects. 

In the better sense of the word, he was much 
of a politician. He had well-settled opinions 
on public questions and always took an active 
part in the political campaigns. He was never 
an office-seeker and seldom an office-holder, but 
at all times exercised the right to participate in 
the direction of local and public administration. 
And in the highest significance of the term he 
was a patriot. Although born abroad, he came 
to this country in his childhood and was an in- 
tense American. 



86 fl&attbew Matson ffoster 



He was preeminently a domestic man. He 
loved his home, and, aside from his business, 
found little to interest or attract him elsewhere. 
He had a somewhat hasty temper, but it had 
been schooled by courtesy and affection, which 
were his marked characteristics in the family 
circle. His private life was exceptionally pure ; 
no breath of scandal ever attached to his con- 
duct. His habits were above reproach at a time 
and in a community when society was somewhat 
crude and unrefined. He never used tobacco, 
drank no intoxicating liquors, was a stranger 
to profanity, abstained from cards, and sought 
to impress these habits upon his children. 

We know that his life was not lived in vain, 
for we have seen in this narrative how he blessed 
and benefited his family and his community. 
But his will be a broader and a far more useful 
life if, through his children and the reading of 
this little book, his traits of character shall be 
perpetuated in the lives of the "little ones" 
who he was so anxious should not forget him. 



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